Following Microsoft’s Xbox Series X Games Showcase, next-gen battle-lines are now well and truly drawn between the two platform-holders.
Ah, how we love a good bust-up between rival console manufacturers – especially now that Microsoft and Sony have locked into surprisingly close launch-synchronisation. So, who will win?
The answer, inevitably, will be both companies – something would have to go drastically wrong for either of them to do anything other than make shedloads of money from the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. However, there’s no denying the fact that making consoles is a tricky, delicate business — especially so in this burgeoning age of game-streaming services which, on paper, would appear to make the concept of consoles redundant (if only faster and more reliable broadband was available to all).
If you paid any heed to many pundits before Microsoft’s games showcase, you would have concluded that the PlayStation 5 had already won the upcoming “console war”, and that Microsoft might as well not bother even manufacturing the Series X. An argument presumably made on the basis that the PS5 is white and black and has a swoopy design (never mind that it is also giant and incredibly heavy), whereas the Series X looks like a massive Lego block with a green light in it. Admittedly, the sort of people who buy shiny-looking Mac laptops which are twice the price of similarly specced PC laptops have probably all decided to opt for the PS5 over the Series X. But we aren’t all that shallow, are we?
Exclusives after all
Despite some baffling pre-showcase mutterings from Microsoft about the unimportance of exclusive games, it was great to see a decent, hefty raft of Xbox Series X exclusives being aired for the first time. Yes, reservations about Microsoft fluffing the key issue of which of those exclusives will also be playable on the Xbox One are entirely valid. But any new console’s sales constituency – and this applies equally to the PS5 and Series X – is purely composed of early adopters who simply must have the latest bit of kit.
The fiscally challenged among us will choose to wait a while, for that killer game which can’t be played on the outgoing-gen console, or that game which is demonstrably better to play on the new console. So, by the time we get around to buying that new console, it shouldn’t be quite so eye-wateringly expensive.
Those who are tribally committed to the Xbox brand will dive in and snap up the new console at launch, and the Series X showcase contained plenty to excite such crucial consumers. Even including a few surprises.
As well as some reassuringly familiar old faces, into which category Halo Infinite most definitely falls. Sure, the Halo Infinite gameplay demo from the showcase has already attracted the attention of the meme-pedlars, and the news that it was apparently running on a PC doesn’t bode enormously well for the prospects of it being significantly better to play on an Xbox Series X than, say, an Xbox One X.
But it’s Halo, and we really, desperately want to play it – the fact that in one slightly botched demo, it didn’t look jaw-droppingly next-gen may have drawn ridicule from those who would never dream of buying a new Microsoft console, but weirdly, should have the opposite effect among Xbox Series X early adopters. How? By inducing a sense of cosy nostalgia and reminding everyone that a new Xbox simply isn’t a new Xbox without a Halo game at launch. All 343 Industries has to do is implement the ray-tracing in the Series X version of the game, and those early adopters will have their reason for buying the console at launch.
Personally, I can’t wait to play Halo Infinite, just for the sheer joy of being back once more in its world, learning to make the most of the likes of the grappling hook and combat shotgun. I’d rather play it on a Series X, but I wouldn’t buy a Series X just to play it.
Which one is the true killer game?
Somewhere among the six Microsoft Game Studios Series X exclusives (Microsoft’s spree of buying studios like Obsidian and Double Fine seems to have taken place just in time for the Series X launch, and it will be interesting to see whether it snaps up more studios in the nearish future) there surely lurks at least one game which will convince those who don’t see themselves as fanatical early adopters to lash out on an Xbox Series X.
Right now, after what amounts to mere initial glimpses of most of those games, it’s difficult to see which ones will fulfil that role. The most obvious candidates would be the games that make a virtue of being high-tech, like Forza Motorsport, or those with massive open worlds which would most benefit from the Xbox Series X’s instant-delivery SSD – with Halo Infinite hopefully among the latter, along with the likes of Fable, Obsidian’s Avowed, State of Decay 3, Hellblade 2 and CrossfireX.
But most of those games looked like very early demos, or even pre-demo teasers, which means they aren’t likely to arrive until a considerable period after the console’s launch. What was particularly gratifying, though, was to get a first glimpse of many games that demonstrated much more quirkiness than we tend to associate with Xbox exclusives.
Among those were the deliciously psychedelic-looking Psychonauts 2, which already looks like the finest realisation yet of the affable Tim Schafer’s maverick vision. Hopefully, Everwild will offer further evidence that Rare has finally recovered its mojo post-Sea of Thieves.
As Dusk Falls and Tell Me Why both look like proper, grown-up, thoughtfully written narrative games, and grabbing Dontnod’s latest as an exclusive is something of a coup for Microsoft. The Gunk and The Medium, meanwhile, both look potentially innovative in gameplay terms – as long as Bloober Team, with the latter, plugs Blair Witch’s glaring omission and remembers to actually put some gameplay in it.
Taken as a whole, the showcase’s roster of Xbox Series X games already looks well rounded and meaty, which is very promising indeed. It was noticeable that Microsoft resisted the temptation to pad that roster out with cross-platform, cross-generation blockbusters like Cyberpunk 2077, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Far Cry 6 and the like.
Series X v PS5 – a level playing field
Over at Sony, the PlayStation 5’s line-up of announced exclusives – which Sony took pains to emphasise will be key to the console’s success – also looks pretty solid, with Horizon: Forbidden West, the inevitable Gran Turismo 7, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, a new Ratchet & Clank and Sackboy: A Big Adventure providing plenty for all the different flavours of PlayStation fans.
As with Microsoft’s line-up for the Xbox Series X, some of the PS5’s real killer games won’t arrive until the hardware has been on sale for quite some time, while others will also span the current generation. So, if you feel inclined to highlight those facts to criticise one platform-holder, you’ll have to accept that they applies to both.
Initial trenches, at least, have now been dug and plenty more skirmishes (no doubt of increasing intensity) between Sony and Microsoft await, in the build-up to the two consoles’ launches towards the end of 2020.
Microsoft does have one not-so-secret weapon, however, which it took every opportunity to push during the Xbox Series X games showcase: Game Pass. We’ve already seen how the company is moving to simplify its games-subscriptions offerings in the build-up to the Xbox Series X’s launch, by doing away with the need to pay for Xbox Live Gold and focusing on Game Pass and Ultimate Game Pass.
It will surely embark on a relentless campaign to position Game Pass as a means of generating an instant library of games for the Xbox Series X without gamers having to lash out vast amounts of money on a selection of physical games: that’s a pretty attractive proposition for early adopters. It will be fascinating to see whether Sony retaliates with a similar offering, along the lines of a beefed-up PlayStation Plus.
